Quincy Brooks looked to the notorious San Quentin prison for his clever, locally influenced rap moniker. At 30, he isn't quite as old-school as that penitentiary, but he has been an instrumental part of the Bay Area rap scene for so long that his young son Lil Quinn is now on his way to following in his footsteps. Quinn senior has had little exposure in the mainstream hip-hop world even after six solo albums (and several more group efforts and compilations), but his name is synonymous with San Francisco among the biggest rap stars of the West Coast and beyond. He has refused to leave the area for richer music industry pastures despite many temptations, keeping that Giants cap firmly on his head. He even wrote a song to encourage Barry Bonds when the accused steroid user had almost reached his goal of breaking baseball's all-time home run record. Team loyalty, all the way.


